Crotchets In the Air; or; an (Un) Scientific Account of a Balloon-Trip1838 |
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Crotchets in the Air; Or; An (Un) Scientific Account of a Balloon-Trip John Poole No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
Admissionists amongst answer architect Bal-lunatics ballast BALLOON-TRIP bodkins clouds COLBURN CONGRESS CONGRESS CONGRESS HF CONGRESS LIBRARY CONGRESS OF CONGRESS CONGRESS THE CONGRESS CONGRESS THE LIBRARY CONGRESS THE LIER CONGRESS_THE crotchet day-light dear degree descent dizzi Eagle and Child earth elevation fancy Fee'dwell five four Green H OF CONGRESS half heard height HENRY COLBURN Higher Histrionometer Horsecollar hour IBRARY THE LIBRARY inflated JOHN POOLE LIBR LIBRARY CONGRESS LIBRARY H LIBRARY LIBRARY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS LIBRARY RARY LIER ARY London looking Lord Thurlow MARLBOROUGH STREET mind Moral Nassau NGRESS nine old ballooners parasite party Paul's placed pleasant pocket poor Possibilifying puff puffster rail-road RARY OF CONGRESS replied RESS reverie river ruined sensation shew SKETCHES AND RECOLLECTIONS slightest snuff-box spal stand Thames wherries thing thought thousand tion town valve-line Vauxhall Gardens Wanstead Flats Westminster Abbey whole wonder
Popular passages
Page 3 - Why, thy face is valanced since I saw thee last: com'st thou to beard me in Denmark/— What, my young lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine.
Page 27 - ODE TO MESSRS. GREEN, HOLLOND, AND MONCK MASON, ON THEIR LATE BALLOON EXPEDITION. " Here we go up, up, up, — and there we go down, down, downy." — OLD BALLAD. O lofty-minded men ! Almost beyond the pitch of my goose pen ! And most inflated words ! Delicate Ariels ! ethereals ! birds Of passage ! fliers ! angels without wings ! Fortunate rivals of Icarian darings...
Page 22 - tis, to cast one's eyes so low! The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air, Show scarce so gross as beetles : Half way down Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade! Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head: The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice; and yon...
Page 20 - I have heard it explained thus:—In a balloon you are entirely detached from the earth : there are no intermediate points by which the eye can be gradually conducted downwards ; so that the impression of height upon the senses, that impression which causes dizziness, is indefinite, vague. From the parapet of a house, or from a column, or a tall cliff, the eye, on the contrary, is led by an intervening medium down to the base, and the elevation...
Page 15 - I do not despise you," says he, " for talking about a balloon going up, for it is an error which you share in common with some millions of our fellow-creatures ; and I, in the days of my ignorance, thought with the rest of you. I know better now. The fact is, we do not go up at all ; but at about five minutes past six, on the evening of Friday, the 14th of September, 1838 — at about that time, Vauxhall Gardens, with all the people in them, went downi
Page 16 - I speak from the evidence of my senses, founded upon repetition of the fact. Upon each of the three or four experimental trials of the powers of the balloon to enable the people to glide away from us with safety to themselves, down they all went about thirty feet — then, up they came again, and so on. There we sat quietly all the while in our wicker buck-basket, utterly unconscious of motion ; till, at length, Mr. Green snapping a little iron, and thus letting loose the rope by which the earth...
Page 16 - ... on. There we sat quietly all the while in our wicker buck-basket, utterly unconscious of motion ; till, at length, Mr. Green snapping a little iron, and thus letting loose the rope by which the earth was suspended to us — like Atropos cutting the connexion between us with a pair of shears — down it went with everything on it ; and your poor, paltry, little Dutch toy of a town, (your Great Metropolis, as you insolently call it,) having been placed on casters for the occasion — I am satisfied...
Page 80 - On the evening of the 6th July, 1819, she ascended in a balloon from the Tivoli Gardens at Paris. At a certain elevation she was to discharge some fire-works which were attached to her car. From my own windows I saw the ascent. For a few minutes the balloon was concealed by clouds. Presently it re-appeared, and there was seen a momentary sheet of flame. There was a dreadful pause. In a few seconds, the poor creature, enveloped and entangled in the netting of her machine, fell with a frightful crash...
Page 5 - ... of balloons? — and within what probable period ?" This question is framed with such extraordinary precision, that, to one who could, there ought not to be the slightest difficulty in answering it. My observations, however, having been confined chiefly to the looking down on the chimney-tops, I am enabled to reply only, with anything approaching to certainty, first, that I do not know ; secondly, that I cannot tell ; and, thirdly, that it is hard to say. Yet are there points upon which I will...